Cambodian PM orders search for 'violent' Facebook poster
samlot chit
Cambodian PM orders search for 'violent' Facebook poster
Newspaper names a former CNRP opposition activist as the alleged offender
Cambodian leader Hun Sen has ordered authorities to find the owner of a Facebook account, believed to be in Thailand, who posted a poem with “violent” words on the prime minister’s page and news feed regarding his grandson.
According to one government-friendly publication, the holder of the account is a 35-year-old male activist from the former Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) named Voeun Veasna.
“Please, compatriots, read this article, which is full of violence. This is why I have to eliminate extremist theories and activities at all costs,” Hun Sen said on his Facebook account.
“I have already disbanded a Khmer Rouge political and military organization that made Cambodia as peaceful and developed as it is today.
“Now there are extremist rebels left that need to be eliminated for peace to be maintained. Hopefully the police will find this person.”
The CNRP, the main political opposition party in Cambodia, was dissolved by the courts ahead of elections in 2018 when Hun Sen’s long ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won every seat contested at the poll.
Cambodian activists and artists have also come under pressure for using social media to protest
Since then its leader-in-exile Sam Rainsy has threatened to return and stage a popular rebellion aimed at ousting Hun Sen, which resulted in more than 100 CNRP supporters being rounded up by police and charged with incitement and in some cases treason.
The Khmer Times said the Facebook account was under the name Prey Lang Kranhung and Hun Sen had produced a document showing the real owner of the account was Voeun Veasna.
It said Voeun Veasna was issued with a warrant by Phnom Penh Municipal Court on May 2 ordering authorities to arrest him on charges of “obstructing the implementation of measures and inciting serious social unrest.”
Voeun Veasna is currently living in Thailand and is a member of the CNRP TV group, it said.